I believe that it is still possible for freighters to haul cargo for other empires, just very unlikely. It was mentioined in the release notes for either Legends or one of the patches (something like 'freighters are now much less likely to haul cargo for other empires'). Anyways I still see this on odd occasions.

I've been in the habit of not trading any maps with the computer for a long time. I don't want them having access to mine (except in rare circumstances) and on balance theirs upset my knowledge of my own exploration efforts more than any advantage I get from revealing the territory faster. Taking a bit longer but finding more ruins is worth it for me. Finding their capital only needs one relatively easy espionage mission.

Beware that if the cpu explorers find any of your colonies they will still (most likely) engage in trade unless you have unchecked the 'trade with foreign empires' setting in the policy files regardless of not having a fta.

But timing/delaying making free trade agreements is a useful idea. I'm guessing you pair it with bribing them to like you or similar?

I think the issue of trading with foreign empires is that they essentially come in and buy up all your stock so you have trouble refueling ships, building bases and ships and keeping luxuries on hand for your colonies. This would be especially annoying in the early game.

Absolutely right Shadow Tiger, buying my resources early on is a pain, and later when I am self sufficient in everything I don't NEED that pain. My freighters should stay in my territory due to fuel efficiency considerations too. I have seen freighters on the way home to my sectors carrying just 12 carbon fiber for instance. Better not to make the trip at all, it's just not worth it.

To clarify a question sent by personal message, there are three types of hidden zones - research zone, supply zone, and test zone. You can find these zones by beacon activated by opening a ruins, discovering a functional abandoned ship, or repairing a broken abandoned warship. You can also purchase zone locations from pirates, or send out long/ultra long range scanner equipped explorers to find them on the map. To answer the specific question, supply zones contain a medium space port and several warships. The spaceport has a good stock of supplies to build 5 large or up to 24 small ships. You must PAY to build ships there just like at any other spaceport.

Can you elaborate a little about Leaders. Whats traits are you looking for? I am building an excel database to know what a single trait gives and some combinations too. What was your best combination ever?

Negative skills eventually increase to positive. What I look for in a leader is skills, not traits. I want skill bonuses for happiness and income, not negotiable. I also want population growth rate, facility construction rate, civilian or military ship construction rate, or especially the rarely seen skill colony ship construction rate...

Lonnie Courtney Clay p.s. I've never seen over four skills or traits, think that limit is hard coded.

In the past year my game start strategy has evolved. I no longer care about much of anything except the leader when playing as Quameno. The reason is that if you change leaders as Quameno, you lose your best scientist replacing him. What I once did was look at the strategics in my explored territory using the expansion planner, and if I lacked anything essential, I just started another game. But as the years have gone by, Elliot has reduced the quality of game starts by making the galaxy worse, so my old standards no longer apply. In my current game, I started many times until I got a leader I really liked, noticed that the territory claimed by my homeworld had a LOT of stars in it, and I had an energy research station. I saved and checked the game editor to see the layout of the galaxy's empires. I found that the Wekkarrus, Paratis, and Visareen were all near each other. I like to conquer those races for their racial bonus. That was the deciding factor for me, a little bit of a cheat using the game editor, but I don't use it after the first five minutes of a game that lasts months of calendar time. So I feel justified checking things before I commit to playing ann epic game...

Any ideas on how to tell whether the empire is losing or gaining from trade in terms of access to resources? If I have a number of sources of a commodity, yet it is scarce for me as well as the galaxy, my suspicion is that a lot is being exported.

Do FTA and Pact supersede turning off trade in the settings or is the trade just reduced to zero?

Not sure about losing vs. gaining but if you go through the mining bases which harvest that resource, and also your spaceports, you can see reservations for resources made by other empires/independents. The resource will be listed with the empires flag next to it, or no flag if its an independent. (These can often be found at the bottom of the resources list...) This will give you an idea of the exported amount of that resource, but remember that they are reservations and may take ages to be collected...

I think that the only way you can track your incoming resources is to go through your freighters list and find those that are transporting that resource, then select them (on the galactic/sector map) and posit their source destination. If they have no cargo on board they are going to collect it (unless they have just dropped it off). This will not be comprehensive as there is also cargo transported by independents, but it should give you an idea of the general situation.

For the FTA/MDP question, try it and see. I would guess offhand that it just reduces the trade to zero rather than superseding having it turned off.

Any ideas on how to tell whether the empire is losing or gaining from trade in terms of access to resources? If I have a number of sources of a commodity, yet it is scarce for me as well as the galaxy, my suspicion is that a lot is being exported.

Do FTA and Pact supersede turning off trade in the settings or is the trade just reduced to zero?

Seems to be a simple question..which empires i do trade with and what are the trading goods and how much money is involved. Do i have a surplus of goods/resources in my empire to trade ? (do i get more resources by a free trading pact ?) I buy cheaper resources from empire 1 and sell it to empire 2 Or do i trade only in luxery goods and try to get as much strategic resources by mining self and by buying cheap strategic resource or by a free trading pact ? A free trading agreement has nothing to do with strategic resources or luxery resources .. ? foreign trade bonuses Is it wise to have a free trading pact ..giving away strategic resources .. is there filtering possible in trading goods..no ?

10) I generate a couple hundred galaxies for every game I play. It takes a day or two compared to seven weeks to play a game. Basically I want a game where I can develop the galaxy into a star empire to be proud of. I do not save a potential start unless it meets my criteria, which are :

11) If your homeworld is a moon orbiting a gas giant, start another galaxy, because you don't want your freighters chasing the docks all game. Click on the home system. If there are not at least a full line plus a second line of six or more resources, generate another galaxy. If there are fewer than ten total planets plus moons, same. That takes about five seconds to judge. If there is more than one gas cloud with a storm within a sector, start another.

12) Count the number of systems within a sector of your home system, ignoring gas clouds. If there are fewer than 25, start anther game. That takes about 30 seconds.

13) Selecting sector view and plus zooming out three times, look at your position within the galaxy. Does it look like a prosperous neighborhood, with more star systems than gas clouds and few storms? Okay then count the home system strategic resources, and if fewer than 15 of them, start another galaxy, takes another 30 seconds.

14) Open up the expansion planner and check your empire resource locations. If there is no caslon fuel, or less than two steel then discard. Look at the galaxy priority list. If there are less than six total of steel, including all of your steel mines, discard. If there is no fibre, discard. If there is an independent in the potential colonies list, that is a plus!

15) Okay then save and make a note of the file's name and your observations about that potential start. When you have a dozen or two, then go back and look at each judging the total list of potential starts. The process takes 20-30 hours for me, unless I get really lucky and find an outstanding start early.

16) Open up the expansion planner and notice what resources are already mined. How many missing ones can be developed with three constructor projects to start off the game? You need lots of steel and other resources to develop mines. If you design your own as I do, then they may require different resources depending upon your technology. Use the designs screen selecting the mines to notice what they require. Highest priority for mines are those resources required to build mines! Chances are that you will disagree with the three projects already scheduled by your constructors, so change orders appropriately.

I'm a new player, but I don't quite understand why I would want to "cheat" like that? :o

I've always played Civilizations and similar as RANDOM race, with as normal gameplay settings as possible (research speed normal etc). I don't want to start a new game, if I get a poor start nor use the editor, check resources and/or edit them. No way, Jóse!

Instead I want to adapt and make do! The magic lies there for me in games. You get the cards you are dealt with - deal with it! :D

I feel that your way of restarting the game over and over for literally days until you make a perfect start would be so very boring to me. And why play the game 2nd time if you'll make the start similar (perfect) anyways? :o

I love the idea of running low on certain resources, then being "forced" to find a source any means necessary. And if I lose the game, so be it!

I also play with tech trading disabled, since it feels kinda cheap. Stealing tech is OK though. :)

You're correct that my style of play is not for everyone. I can play 80 hours per week, so I don't mind taking as much time as is required to get things done to perfection. For example, I spent seven hour this week planning my colonization and construction ship activities for the next game year. I also spent four hours yesterday just looking at what was happening on the map and redirecting ships to better destinations from the ones which I had originally ordered. A typical turn with my 1000+ state run miners takes about 20-30 minutes to process 10-20 events per game day. I run at 1/4 speed and still get a whole string of events before I can get back into pause...

I drank three small beers, declared war on the Dhayuts (without checking their military strength) and went on to lose a great deal of mining stations. They also blasted one of my newest colony's populations into dust... Perhaps I need to take a leaf out of your book. Damn it beer